Community events to focus on Vietnam War

The Wisconsin Historical Society, Wisconsin Public Television and the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs are joining to present a series of community events next week centering around a new PBS American Experience documentary film, “Two Days in October.”

The film is based on the book “They Marched Into Sunlight” by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Maraniss.

The book and the film explore simultaneous events in October 1967 – a Viet Cong ambush that nearly wiped out an American battalion in a Vietnam jungle and a UW–Madison student protest against the Dow Chemical Co. that spiraled out of control, marking the first time a campus anti-war demonstration had turned violent.

Those two events, half a world apart, “offer a window into a moment that divided a nation and a war that continues to haunt us,” says Mark Samels, a UW–Madison graduate and executive producer for American Experience.

The free community events scheduled for next week include:

Wednesday, Oct. 5

1:30-3:30 p.m., Monona Terrace Lecture Hall: A special screening of the film, introduced by UW–Madison history professor Jeremi Suri. Registration is required.

7-9 p.m, Monona Terrace Lecture Hall: A community forum that will include David Maraniss, the film’s producers, and several participants in the book and film. They will reflect, along with the audience, on the events of 1967, the consequences, the ripples of those events on their own lives, and the broader implications for the nation. Clips from the film will also be shown.

Registration is required.

Thursday, Oct. 6

7 p.m., Wisconsin Veterans Museum, 30 W. Mifflin St.: A discussion about the battle at Ong Thanh with David Maraniss and two of the participants in the battle, Col. Clark Welch and Brig. Gen. James Shelton. No reservations are required for this event.

Friday, Oct. 7

7 p.m., Wisconsin Historical Society auditorium, 816 State St.: A screening of “Two Days in October.” The film is 90 minutes in length. Registration is required.

For more information or to register for the Wednesday and Friday events, visit http://www.wpt.org/60s/ or call 265-4442.

“Two Days in October” will be broadcast on Wisconsin Public Television at 8 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 17, the date on which the demonstration and the ambush occurred, and will be rebroadcast at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 18.